Bacteria that makes antibiotics found

Professor Ch. Venkata Ramana of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and fellow researchers have discovered a new species of a bacterium that produces antibiotics.

The species was found in Buffalo Lake on the UoH campus. The bacterium, Planctopirus Hydrillae, will supposedly provide a solution to the problem of diseases becoming resistant to a majority of the known drugs. The new bacteria have also been found to clean up ammonia waste, which is a growing environmental concern.

This finding has come to light after a rush to discover drugs to overcome the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. The discovery was published in the latest issue of the scientific publication, Journal of Antibiotics.

“Most pathogens are becoming resistant to the most common antibiotics produced by many known and common microorganisms. This is the first report of an antibiotic producing bacterium from the Phylum Planctomycetes. Cultivating the bacteria of this phylum is extremely difficult and we are the first group from India to develop the art of cultivating these bacteria which are very useful even for environmental issues, particularly for the treatment of ammonia waste,” said Prof Ch. Venkata Ramana.

The team has sequenced the genome of the bacterium. The research team includes researchers from the Bacterial Discovery Laboratory, the Centre for Environment, the Institute of Science and Technology, the JNTU, Hyderabad and the UoH.